Posted by Jim Margalus on September 21st, 2009 |
0 commentsOrlando Cabrera hit a flare to short right, down the line. A diving Jermaine Dye didn’t get there. Nor did he stop it. It rolled away slowly behind him for a JD triple.
He then scored on an A.J. Pierzynski passed ball — on a fastball over the plate. One batter after Daniel Hudson prevented Joe Mauer from driving him in.
That was how the game started, and that was how it ended. The Twins scored their first four runs with heavy assistance from the Sox, and the offense showed nothing en route to its 13th shutout.
Hudson ran into control problems in the second, walking three batters — including two with two outs, leading to the Twins’ second run. They’d score their third thanks to a leadoff throwing error by Hudson on a Cabrera bunt.
All in all, Hudson pitched pretty well for his first major-league start, and I’ll write plenty more about it later.
Otherwise… Mark Kotsay had a nice game, with two singles and a nice diving play along the first base line. But Kotsay failed to score A.J. Pierzynski from third with less than two outs, so even he was tainted.
Record; 73-78 | Box score | Play-by-play
big-league debut . blowout loss . defensive issues . jd triple . nothing from the offense . shutout loss
Posted by Jim Margalus on September 21st, 2009 |
0 commentsIf Jermaine Dye ever had an occasion to break out of his slump with style, it was with the bases loaded against Joakim Soria in the eighth inning.
Soria loaded the bases with a walk to Alexei Ramirez, bringing Dye and his 4-for-35 slump to the plate.
It ended with a medium-range flyout to right. So much for redemption.
The game ended in equally disheartening fashion, with pinch-running Dewayne Wise gunned down at second on an unsuccessful stolen base attempt. You could see the strategy in it — Scott Podsednik isn’t likely to drive anybody in from first, and Gordon Beckham’s slumping pretty badly himself.
But that didn’t work either. Not much did against Robinson Tejeda and the Kansas City pitching staff today, outside of Scott Podsednik and A.J. Pierzynski. They combined for four of the team’s six hits, and Pierzynski drove in Podsednik (after Pods stole his 28th base) for the lone run of the game.
Carlos Quentin had a chance with the bases loaded following that series of events, but he faltered as well. The Sox stranded eight on the day.
It wasted a terrific effort by Freddy Garcia, who allowed a single run in the first (wild pitch) and third (RBI single) innings and nothing after. He finished his day by retiring the last nine he faced.
Record: 73-77 | Box score | Play-by-play
great start . nothing from the offense
